Questions for Completion of SMS Safety Systems

Systems in your SMS are an integral part of your Safety Risk Management process. Systems are how your organization important safety factors into logical groups, usually based on type of operation.

For example, if your operations cover both Ground Ops and Flight Ops, it makes sense for each operation to be its own system. This way you can manage safety factors and resources that are relevant to each system.

Have you identified different systems in your company?

Flight ops

Ground ops

Maintenance

Have you described the purpose, function, and context of each system?

Have you identified the critical processes for each system?

Process for monitoring effectiveness of risk controls

Process for communicating safety information

Process for practicing continuous improvement

Have you identified the procedure for updating your operational risk profile as your SMS changes?

Does each system have an identified manager responsible for reviewing the system?

Questions for Acceptable Level of Safety

Acceptable Level of Safety (ALoS) is the level of risk your company is willing to “take on” or “tolerate” for any given safety issue. How you define ALoS will have wide ranging implications for how you manage safety issues.

Have you identified the size and color scheme on your risk matrix?

4x4 grid, 5x5 grid, or 6x6 grid (5x5 is standard)

Green, Yellow, Red (this is standard color scheme)

Green, Yellow, Orange, Red

Have you defined and documented each level of Severity on your risk matrix?

Survey Questions for Operational Safety Factors

There are many operational factors that effect safety, namely hazards, risks, root causes, and analysis of these factors. Here are the questions you should be concerned with regarding your SRM process.

Have you documented all identified hazards in your company?

Have you performed hazard analysis on each hazard, and documented the analysis activities?

Have you documented all identified all relevant safety concerns (risks) for each hazard?

Have you performed a risk assessment on each safety concern?

Have you documented any other relevant factors, such as root causes for each hazard?